Evolva reverses into Arpida following CHF 44M second round funding

Merger | Funding

The Swiss venture capital firm Aravis has co-led the second closing of CHF 44 million (€29.1 million) second round funding in drug discovery specialist Evolva SA, oiling the wheels for the reverse merger of Evolva SA with Arpida Ltd. The merged company has now been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange as Evolva Holding SA.

“The value-adding model of Aravis’ investment and management support is critical for Swiss companies to remain funded in hostile times and succeed in an international environment,” said Jean-Philippe Tripet, managing partner and founder of Aravis and vice chairman of the board of Evolva Holding SA. “With this signature deal Aravis [has demonstrated] its ability to actively support companies right from seed financing to the public markets.”

Evolva has developed a technology platform for the discovery of novel small molecules that represents a distinct approach from both the prevailing synthetic chemistry and protein engineering approaches. Based on this technology, the company has made a number of discovery and pre-clinical partnerships, which in 2008 generated revenues of about CHF 12 million (€7.9 million).  

This platform technology is also the source of Evolva’s in-house pipeline of compounds, with its lead compound for renal and cardiovascular diseases entering Phase I at the beginning of 2009, and two others, an anti-fungal and an anti-viral, expected to enter Phase I in 2010.   

Simon Nebel, managing partner of Aravis, said the success in listing Evolva is partly a result of an Aravis-inspired decision to move the company’s headquarters from Copenhagen to Allschwil [Basel]. “Evolva’s growth within Switzerland owes much to the region’s unmatched pool of significant pharmaceutical companies and rich and talented recruiting environment,” said Nebel.

Aravis first invested in Evolva SA when the fund led a CHF 21.8 million (€14.4 million) first round in August 2004/5. At that time Aravis was also instrumental in moving Evolva to Switzerland. Aravis went on to lead a second closing of this first round to the value of CHF 12 million in December 2006.